Mr. Speaker, let me tell the Deputy Prime Minister that people may be fed up, but the person responsible for this is the Prime Minister, who refuses to testify at a public inquiry and to table all the relevant documents.

Today, he is being judged by the public and 85% of those who have been polled want us to get to the bottom of this.

Did the Prime Minister think he would get away with it because he is both judge and jury in this matter?

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is displaying a total lack of trust in his House leader who said “Table the bill of sale and we will stop asking questions”. He should settle this issue with his House leader.

The ethics counsellor looked into the matter, as did the RCMP, and no conflict of interest was uncovered, because there is no conflict of interest.

They are relieved, Mr. Speaker, that for one second there has been a pause on Shawinigan, but it will continue just seconds from now.

This multibillion dollar countervailing duty against Canadian softwood producers is no secret. It is no secret that it has arrived and it is no secret that it was coming.

For weeks the Minister for International Trade has been talking about appointing a special envoy to try to do something to avoid this terrible situation that has hit the industry now. When will the minister announce the special envoy?

Mr. Speaker, I thank the opposition leader for a question that really does interest all Canadians. This is a very important day for Canadians.

We are quite concerned with the wrong allegations that the Americans are tabling again. The Canadian industry is quite able to fight these wrong allegations. The idea of an envoy, which the Prime Minister raised with President Bush, I raised with Mr. Zoellick. It is still a concept on which we are working hard and I hope very much that the Americans will take it up as well.

Mr. Speaker, the minister has indicated that the president seems to be open. When I talked with Vice-President Cheney he was open. This is our appointment. Why are we waiting for the Americans?

When will the minister bring together the softwood industry within this country and get them to agree on the envoy? This is our problem. We need to go after this. We do not wait for the Americans to appoint an envoy for us.

Mr. Speaker, we are discussing the mandate right now. I have already agreed with Mr. Zoellick that at the end of the week in Buenos Aires we will be discussing the mandate. We are already working on the Canadian front. It is an idea that we have been promoting. We will be appointing a co-ordinator for the Canadian industry, as we have in the last few months, and we will negotiate a mandate with the United States that will make sure that these two individuals really have something to contribute to the long term solutions of this very important file.

Mr. Speaker, parliament finds itself in the paradoxical situation of the Prime Minister being both judge and defendant in his own case. He is the one who must admit that he placed himself in a conflict of interest, and he is the one who must agree to an independent inquiry. In addition, under the 1999 contract, the Prime Minister himself will have to pay the costs of his associates' lawyers in the event of an inquiry into this affair.

Is the Prime Minister not very clearly caught up in two conflicts of interest, rather than one, in the Auberge Grand-Mère affair?

Mr. Speaker, in light of the documents released and the statements made in this affair, do the Prime Minister's personal interests not stand square in the way of his ability to satisfactorily perform his duties as Prime Minister?

Mr. Speaker, just over an hour ago the United States administration proceeded to impose billions of dollars in countervail duties against our forest industry. American lumber producers are asking for as much as $4 billion to be levelled against the Canadian industry. Our government has had five years to prepare for this day.

Is the government prepared to tell the Americans that our co-operation with respect to energy and on a pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48th state depends on a positive resolution of the softwood lumber issue?

Mr. Speaker, let me react to the ridiculously high allocations that the Americans have just, as the member said, imposed. They are talking now about an allocation of 39.5% on subsidies and 28% to 36% on anti-dumping. We believe that these allocations are absolutely wrong and far too high. We are not subsidizing our industry and this government will act in a very responsible way. We will not hold our energy industry hostage to—